Before the Heat took on the Pacers in Miami on Sunday night, Heat forward LeBron James tried to give the world the just-another-game routine. That, despite the fact that the Pacers entered the day as the only team in the league Miami has not beaten this year, and the team many consider the most legitimate threat in the East when it comes to disturbing the Heat’s plans to make a third straight trip to the Finals.

“We don’t need to make no statement, against no team,” James told reporters. “We know where we stand, when it counts. We want to play well. We want to continue to get better against a very good team.”

Anyone buying that?

Certainly, with the way the Heat pushed the Pacers around on Sunday, getting a 105-91 win—their 18th in a row—it looked like a statement was made, intentional or otherwise. Having seen these teams clash three times now, there are some things that could be gleaned about a potential playoff matchup.

The “other guys” advantage belongs to Miami. Not that you’d have been able to tell in the first two meetings between the teams. But when you get beyond the Heat’s trio of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, there are still some pretty good fourth and fifth options on the roster—namely, Ray Allen and Mario Chalmers.

In the first two games, those two combined for a whopping 10 points, with Allen shooting 0-for-9 from the field. On Sunday, we saw a more usual contribution from the pair, Chalmers playing brilliantly (26 points on 7-for-9 shooting, including five 3s) and Allen at least breaking into the scoring column (11 points on 3-for-7 shooting).

The Pacers just don’t have anything so reliable beyond their main cogs of David West, Paul George and Roy Hibbert.

The turnover battle can neutralize rebounding. The Pacers’ rebounding advantage over the Heat in the first two games–89-61—has been well-documented, and it is a potential problem because rebounding is such a weakness for the Heat. But they compensate for their lack of size with their ball-hawking ability, and they’re fourth in the league in percentage of possessions in which they force a turnover (16.4 percent).

The Pacers were able to take good care of the ball in the first two games, with 21 total turnovers, but in Sunday’s loss, they turned it over 18 times, thanks in large part to six steals by Wade.

The Heat have a David West problem. West was dominant in the last meeting with the Heat, when he went for 30 points (on 12-for-15 shooting), with seven rebounds and five assists. He was pretty good (14 points, 11 rebounds) in the first meeting, too, and was tough on the Heat in last year’s postseason.

The Heat don’t have anyone who can match up with him, because Shane Battier is not big enough, Udonis Haslem is not quick enough and they need LeBron James to work against Paul George. That was true again on Sunday, as West scored 24 points on 7-for-10 shooting, going 10-for-11 from the line. To have a chance in any series against the Heat, the Pacers would need big-time performances from West.

The road is keeping the Pacers from the ranks of the contenders. Sunday was the first time these two teams played in Miami since last year’s playoffs, and the game reinforced how difficult it would be for the Pacers to go into American Airlines Arena and win a game. The Heat are now 29-3 at home, while the Pacers, at 14-17, are the only of the eight top-four seeds in either conference to be below .500 on the road.

You can’t win a championship without being at least a decent road team.